Luck o' the Irish...

As luck would have it, we did not have a very lucky St. Patty's day here in the Seeley household yesterday. :(

We started out the morning with Ethan's first trip to the dentist. We walked in the door and they had lots of fun toys and I was able to check-in electronically. It was looking promising. :) Ethan now does great in waiting rooms, however, as soon as they call us back through that door you would think he was headed to Death Row or something! :( The tears start flowing, I have to start dragging him behind me, and it's overall a pretty miserable experience. I am not sure why he has this newfound hatred/fear of medical offices, but he does. Lucky me. Fortunately, there was no waiting with this visit - we got right to it. I wanted to get a few pics or a short video of the experience, but I had to hold Ethan the whole time, so no such luck. He sat in my lap and we leaned him back into the dentist's lap so that she could begin. By this point he had calmed down a bit to a whimper, so it was somewhat bearable. Whew. Then the first thing she noticed was some gray staining on his front teeth. :( Not good. She asked if he took iron supplements, which he doesn't, but later determined it was just the early signs of cavities trying to form! Cavities in my baby!?! Not good. She removed a lot of plaque from along the gums and was able to get his teeth looking nice again. I also got a quick lesson on how to properly brush his teeth. It seems I was not doing a great job getting all the way to/past the gum line. As much fun as it is wrestling your toddler at brushing time, it will now be a necessary evil! After she got them all cleaned up, she applied a fluoride treatment. Much easier than what I remember from growing up. No bubble gum flavored foam stuff in an uncomfortable tray in your mouth for what seems like eternity. She just rubbed this very sticky stuff on in mere seconds and that was it! We just needed to be sure to not brush for at least 6 hours, but eating and drinking would be fine. Yay! Quick and painless. Perfect! I also learned something else at this visit. We had been using the toddler training paste, you know, the one with Thomas on front that doesn't have fluoride in it. Ethan does not yet spit out the toothpaste, but prefers to swallow it, so I thought fluoride paste was still a no-no. I was informed, however, that at the sign of the first tooth, fluoride paste should be used! Just a small smear (no pea-sized dabs) used twice a day and he should be fine. Doing this, we will hopefully avoid any cavities from actually forming. I guess we were lucky that we went when we did so that we caught it before he did have a major problem. So my advice to other moms - when your pediatrician recommends seeing a dentist at that one-year check-up (especially if you or your hubby is prone to cavities like I am), do yourself a favor and schedule it! I wish I would have sooner, but feel good knowing that at least we got him in there before it was too late. Though a bit traumatic for Ethan, we made it through it. I think the free balloon at Publix on our way home made up for it. ;)

Next up for the day - my allergy shot. I recently discovered that our insurance was no longer covering the cost of getting my weekly allergy shots. Instead of paying just 10% (and them covering the other 90%) like they did last year, I am now responsible for all 100%. Yuck! Over the course of a year, assuming I get my shot every week, this was now going to cost me over $700!! Wow! I know we have good insurance coverage (great deductible and co-pays), so I can't complain, but if I can save $700, I am going to do it! After speaking to an agent, I discovered that if I get my shot at a primary care office (vs. the allergist's office like I normally do), that it would still be covered at the 90/10. So, I was on the search for a new primary care office where I could do this. I managed to find one, and one close to the house too, an added bonus. Only problem is that it is a satellite clinic, so they are only there in the afternoons. This will mean working around Ethan's afternoon nap. So yesterday was going to be my first shot at this office. They wanted me to set up an appointment and be sure that the doctor was there, just in case. Of course a nurse would give me the shot, but I guess they were worried. We rushed from naptime to get there at the scheduled 3:45, of which they said I couldn't be any later than this. I proceeded to then sit and wait, and wait, and wait in their waiting room. :( Ugh. This was not how it was supposed to go. Of course I had Ethan with me, and trying to entertain an active toddler with just one of his toy cars and a Magnadoodle can be quite a task. And we all now know how he feels about doctor's offices too! haha. Then the lady at the desk tries to collect an office co-pay from me. Huh!?! I try to explain to her that I am not seeing the doctor, that I am supposed to only be paying an injection co-pay. So, they need to call insurance. Seriously? More than annoyed by this point, we continue to wait. Finally, they led us back to a room - oh joy, more tears from Ethan - and we sat there and waited some more for the doctor to come in and basically say hi. Then the nurse FINALLY gave me my injection. The doctor insisted that I wait at least another 10 minutes before leaving the office. Apparently this guy is quite scared that I am going to randomly go into anaphylactic shock, though it has never happened in the 5 years I have been getting shots. So, we sit and wait some more to appease him. We finally made it out of there, an hour after we arrived. Again, not so lucky, when this is usually something that takes all of 5 minutes at the allergist's office! :(

Already frustrated and late in the day, we took a walk when we got home. Ethan hadn't had a snack yet and it was already 5 o'clock, so I knew he would need one sooner than later. So, I strapped him in the jogging stroller instead of letting him walk with me, so he could munch on his Multigrain Cheerios and dried cranberries while Daisy and I walked. Things were going good until we were on our way back to the house. One of the neighbors has a male boxer puppy that is getting quite big and is already bigger than Daisy. The little girl was outside playing with him and when she saw us, she put him on a leash. We walked by the first time without any problems. On the way back, she apparently couldn't contain the frisky guy any longer and he broke free and started chasing us down the street! :( Here I am, Daisy in one hand, stroller in the other, trying to hold her back. Unfortunately, Daisy does not do well with other dogs. It all stems from an incident when she was a puppy and we were living in Kentucky. We were out one evening walking in the neighborhood when she was attacked by a Saint Bernard. The other dog drew blood on her face and neck and left poor Daisy traumatized. Ever since that point she has always gone on the defensive immediately if a dog gets near her face. I can't say that I blame her, but it's been hard trying to socialize her since that point. So, as you can imagine, this meeting of the two boxers in the middle of the street was not looking pretty. There was lots of vicious growling and snarling, and not just coming from Ethan either! ;) Finally the little girl caught up and managed to get ahold of his leash and drag her dog back to their house. Whew! Crisis diverted. My blood pressure, however, took awhile to recover. Could this day get any more unlucky??

Yep, it could. To top it all off, poor Josh got stuck at work late. They were having lots of issues and by the time he made it home we were eating dinner at 8 o'clock. :( The only saving grace to the day was the green Norwegian almond cookies we had for dessert. Oh yeah, so good they can make any day seem just a little less unlucky. :)

Here is my quick and easy version of the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup stick butter
• 1/2 cup powdered (confectioner's) sugar
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cups flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Soften butter in microwave-safe bowl by nuking at 50% power for 45 sec to 1 min. Stir in the sugar. (To make them green, I added the food coloring at this point). Stir in the almond extract, lemon juice and egg and mix well. Gradually add flour and mix until the dough doesn't stick to the side of the bowl anymore. You may need to add a bit more flour to accomplish this. Drop by spoonfuls onto a baking sheet and bake for 6 to 10 minutes, depending on how done you like them. This recipe usually makes 20 small (very rich and buttery) cookies.

The original recipe calls for actual slices of almond (instead of the extract) and using a cookie press to make them pretty. I prefer doing it this way because it's much quicker and easier too. These cookies have always been a favorite of mine and I think Josh may agree. Even Ethan loves them too! :)

After our dessert, we took a few pics in our St. Patty's Day gear and made the best of the unlucky day we had been having. Here is Ethan, cracking himself up at something. He's finally figured out the whole "say cheese" thing. haha!

And here is a sweet kiss for his big sister, Daisy! :)

Actually managed to snag a good one with my little cutie! :) His "say cheese" was a bit awkward here, but we'll work on it! ;)

And yes, little kumquat (who still needs a name) is growing quickly now! Here I am at 23 weeks. Looking back at the bump pictures I took with Ethan, it appears I am progressing along about the same. If so, look out, because in a few more weeks I am going to explode! haha!

Sorry for another long post, but I am finding this blogging thing to be quite therapeutic now. As a child/teen I was a pretty good writer (go me on Power of the Pen team! haha), but I fear that may not be the case anymore. Oh well, I guess I'm not forcing anyone to read! ;) It will be nice to look back on all of this someday when my memories are fading!

Here's hoping the luck o' the Irish was with your family yesterday more than ours! :)